Akira the Don first popped back into my head maybe 18 months ago when he dropped the “Stunners 130″ mixtape, including a dirty bootie of Pip/Knifehandchop/Nirvana, although the track is great the best thing about it isn’t that Pip and I are on it, its ATD’s flow that makes it, his voice is somehow monotone but melodic, lazy yet empowered.
A few years ago while I was stuck sucking the corporate cock that is HMV, the hype monster picked up ATD and ran with him, for a minute all the sweaty children of record retail expected ATD to boom, the AAA EP was a decidedly a pain in the arse to get hold of , but as usual with this filthy little industy of ours he didn’t boom, the hype monster got it wrong. Thankfully there is no giving in for ATD, being signed and dropped just gives him another line for another song and I firmly believe quality in the world will always win out, eventually.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way suggesting that ATD’s 2006 debut long player “When We Were Young” was a failure, I’m fairly sure that he’ll have sold more records than Pip & I, but if we were playing UK Hip Hop Top Trump’s then his card should be as monsterously unbeatable as Dizzee Rascal’s or Lethal Bizzle’s, in fact isn’t ATD responsible for Bizzle’s transformation from street urchin garage star to middle class indie boys dirty little sercet? ATD providing production duties the BZA’s “Police On My Back” and “Babylon’s Burning the Ghetto”. Although V2 are really to blame/thank.
So anyway I’ll stop rambling, a couple of days ago i saw the MusicLikeDirt top 200, you might know MLD by the fact that it was the very first place you could download Thou Shalt Always Kill nearly 4 months before release and 3 weeks after we finished writing it, again anyway what do you think was top? Only the man ATD with a double dope remix of Chily Gonzales, it is spunky for want of a better word, ATD’s content and flow just stands shoulders above his peers. The lad is honest and fills the track with mundanity (which isn’t a word btw) to commentary, and to be honest it just made me smile.
Gonzales – ‘Working Together’ (Akira the Don Remix)
Akira the Don – ‘When We Were Young’ itunes
Akira the Don Website
